Bagging Reed part of Texans’ effort to get to next level

With multiple reports indicating that safety Ed Reed will be joining the Texans, the acquisition reverses a recent trend of veterans leaving Houston, voluntarily or otherwise.

G.M. Rick Smith addressed what at the time was a possible acquisition of Reed during a Wednesday visit with Pro Football Talk. Even without Reed, Smith believes that the Texans already have improved in the wake of their playoff loss at Baltimore.

“I just think when you look at the overall experience,and when I talk about what it takes to win a championship, there’s some intangible things that you can’t really measure,” Smith said. “But there are experiences that our team went through even as we have evolved we got a group of players that have played a lot of football together, and I’m talking about from [2006 to 2007], that group, [2008], all those draft picks that we’ve kept together those guys have played a lot of football, been in a lot of situations and circumstances that they’ve learned from and I think over the last couple of years in the playoff environment we’ve learned and I think that will serve us well moving forward.”

Having a guy who has just climbed the mountain will serve the Texans well, too.

Reed is one of the best ever at his position–a joy to watch in his prime. But he’s on the downside of his career. If he weren’t, he’d still be a Raven. He brings veteran leadership–but he’s also something of a problem child. Again, if he weren’t, he’d still be a Raven. He’s certainly never been the master motivator and team leader Ray Lewis was.

Sorry, but it’s difficult to see how this particular acquisition will help the Texans get to the next level. Ozzie knows his business–he wouldn’t let the Texans take the piece of the puzzle that would have allowed these two teams to switch places last year … or next.

getyourownname says:Mar 20, 2013 7:42 PM

Shouldn’t they be trying to recover from their playoff loss at NE, instead of worrying about a more than year-old game?

If Ed Reed thought there was a chance for him to win another Super Bowl in Baltimore in the next two years he would have stayed. I agree @Deb, Ozzie does know what he is doing and he knows the Ravens have to take a step back this season before they can move forward again. Ed Reed is merely a 1-2 year stop-gap for the Texans at FS while they groom a young guy to take over. You fans out in Baltimore can contest to this, downside of his career or not, Reed can still perform at a championship level on a Championship caliber defense.

Smith has a philosophy and working his philosophy…..they let Wade have a defensive draft when he came on board otherwise they would not have made the playoffs….Devier Posey and Martin and Jean prove they don’t know jack about WR’s…..except for the two losers from last yrs draft the only WR remaining from any draft is Johnson and he was drafted by Casserly and is on his last legs with Reed

db3300 says:Mar 20, 2013 9:58 PM

If Part II isn’t replacing Schaub, they can forget about getting to the next level. Schaub is the Glass Joe of the NFL.

They still have their average QB who makes that extremely difficult to do with Ben Roethlisberger, Peyton Manning, and Tom Brady in the same conference. And before people try to insult “Average Joe” Flacco or whatever the insulting name thrown around for him is these days, he beat the latter of those two this past season in the playoffs, something Schaub has yet to show he can do even in the regular season.

joetoronto says:Mar 21, 2013 4:51 AM

It hurts to say it because of how great he was, but the man is done. There’s nothing left of him.

AS for being a leader, he wasn’t. He followed Ray, like everyone else.

No matter Reed is still not going to be doing the duties of the Head Coach in Houston. That is what the Texans need, a new Head Coach..

htown1035 says:Mar 21, 2013 2:02 PM

realfootballfan says: Mar 20, 2013 11:20 PM

They still have their average QB who makes that extremely difficult to do with Ben Roethlisberger, Peyton Manning, and Tom Brady in the same conference. And before people try to insult “Average Joe” Flacco or whatever the insulting name thrown around for him is these days, he beat the latter of those two this past season in the playoffs, something Schaub has yet to show he can do even in the regular season.
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You are aware that Schaub beat Roethlisberger and Manning and Flacco all in the regular season, and Schaub is only 1-1 in the postseason?